Soon comes the return of the slogan “Consent is Sexy.”
Sexual Assault Awareness Week is coming back to Carleton, Feb. 10-14. Put on by Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), the week features speakers such as Grace Brown from Project Unbreakable and outreach to educate people on the issues of consent and sexual assault.
While it’s fantastic that CUSA is investing in this week and attempting to educate people on the problem of sexual assault, this marketing campaign is problematic.
The campaign should have a catchy slogan—good marketing ensures people remember it and think about it—but CUSA must remember that consent is serious. Consent isn’t sexy. It’s necessary. By calling consent sexy, we trivialize it.
This slogan increases the appeal of the perpetrator instead of addressing the actual issue. It’s saying that if you ask for consent, your sexual appeal goes up. While this campaign is meant to take out the negative, guilt-ridden light of previous campaigns, it crosses into flippancy.
A better alternative would be the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign found on OC Transpo buses, which includes both genders as possible perpetrators and discuss scenarios where consent is not given. When someone says no, when someone is drunk, and a myriad of other different situations. It’s specific, it’s inclusive, and it doesn’t dance around the actual issue of sexual assault.
Catchy slogans are great, but not if they blur the issue and lose the message along the way.
